Jefferson Parish jury convicts in an Easter Sunday 2008 murder

A Jefferson Parish jury has convicted a man of killing another man in Marrero. Samuel Jones, 42, is scheduled to be sentenced to mandatory life in prison on Friday for his conviction of second-degree murder and for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Jones killed Donald Green, 44, by shooting him during a scuffle inside a home in the Westminister subdivision on Easter Sunday 2008. Jones then drove Green to a canal bank at the back of the subdivision, where he used a heavy metal bar to pummel the dying man's forehead.

Jones claimed Green was already dead, at the hands of another man, and his intent was to disfigure the corpse with hopes that authorities would be unable to immediately identify the victim. As such, Jones claimed, it would buy him time to flee.

And, as such, his public defender Joe Perez argued, Jones couldn't be guilty of murder, because Green was already dead.

Prosecutors Sunny Funk and David Hufft argued otherwise, saying Green died from both the gunshot wound and the beating.

"He was alive when he sustained both of the injuries," forensic pathologist Karen Ross testified.

After striking Green's forehead one of two times, Jones said he couldn't continue, thinking the family couldn't look at his face during the funeral. "I felt like this is wrong, what I had done," Jones testified Friday.

The jury deliberated about 1 hour, 15 minutes before returning its verdicts Friday night, rejecting Jones' claim that he did not kill Green.

Jones claimed that Troy Cryer, 23, shot and killed Green, while carrying out a scheme he planned with his sister and father. That plan called for robbing a drug dealer who lived two blocks away, Jones claimed. That drug dealer, whom Jones named "Rob," was Green's crack cocaine supplier, Jones said.

When Green showed up at the Cryer residence, the Cryers decided to force him to lure the dealer to be robbed. Green resisted, a scuffle ensued and Cryer shot him in the side, killing him, Jones claimed.

Cryer awaits his trial as a principal to second-degree murder in Green's death.

Cryer's sister and father were in the home when Green was shot and fled to a neigbor's to call for help, according to testimony. Jones and Cryer moved Green in Jones' Chevy Suburban to a canal bank about a half-mile away, where Jones beat Green with the steal bar.

They returned to Cryer's house to clean the blood, and that's when deputies arrived at Cryer's home. Jones said he and Cryer ran out the back door.

Initially, Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office Detective Gary Barteet said he considered it a possible missing person's case, because no one knew what happened to Green.

Barteet recalled that Jones' Suburban was parked in front of the Cryer home, pointing north. So he decided to drive to the south, to the back of the Westminister subdivision.

And that's how Barteet found Green's body, with bits of skull bone and brain matter in the grass around his head.

"I actually thought he was shot in the head," Barteet testified. "His forehead was ripped open. It looked like a horrendous exit wound."

The following day, Jones fled to Houston, Texas, where within two weeks he committed an armed robbery that culminated with a shootout with police.

Jones, who was wounded, shot a deputy in the thigh. As a result, he was convicted of aggravated assault on a public servant and was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

During the trial last week, Jones admitted he supplied the pistol he accused Cryer of using. And in doing so, he admitted he was guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Because of his 1991 convictions in New Orleans of armed robbery and second-degree kidnapping, Jones was barred from having firearms.

Judge June Darensburg of the 24th Judicial District Court, who is presiding over the cases, will sentence Jones on Friday.

The crime factored into Darensburg's 2009 bid for a seat on the state 5th Circuit Court of Appeal bench. Supporters of her challenger, then-Kenner city councilman Marc Johnson, distributed glossy mail-outs in sections of East Jefferson that assailed Darensburg for letting Cryer out of jail on a reduced bond in 2007.

Johnson disavowed the mailer but stood behind the message and eventually was elected.